Long neck banjo



Aug. 3l, 1965 w. H. BREEDLQVE vLONG NECK BANJO Filed May 8, 1964 INVENTO R United States Patent O 3,203,297 LGNG NECK BANJO William H. Breedlove, 22036 N. Black Canyon, Phoenix, Ariz. Filed May 8, 1964, Ser. No. 365,883 4 Claims. (Cl. SLi- 269) This invention concerns a 2 plus octave long neck banjo with resonator attached to neck.

Heretofore banjoes have been constructed according to the most convenient mechanical means with the result that a great deal of the tone and tone volurne has been lost. My improvements include a long neck banjo having a thumb string on one side and four full length strings extending across the neck. This tends to form a foundation for a banjo which has more volume for its size than the standard type of banjo presently manufactured.

One of the objects is to provide a resonator which is attached to the base of the long neck of the banjo and having a resonator for an attachment so as to eliminate the necessity of having a rod run through the head to hold the head in place on the base of the neck. This gives more volume.

Another object is to provide hooks extending through the resonator to the head tightening ring to eliminate unnecessary parts.

Another object is to have a tail piece anchored to the top of the head ring extending across the lower part of the head. This causes tension, making more tone.

Still another object is to provide a neck with at least 26 or more frets and having one removable or floating fret so that by removing this fret it is easier to install a new head.

Other objects will appear herinafter.

I attain the foregoing objects by means of the construction, parts and combinations of parts shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a banjo incorporating my improvements;

FIGURE 2 is a side view thereof;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary portion of the structure joining the banjo hoop to the neck;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary portion, partially in section, showing the means of joining the tail piece to the main hoop; and

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary portion, partially in section, showing the means of holding the tightening hoop on to the resonator.

Similar numerals refer to Isimilar parts in t-he several views.

In the drawings, 2 indicates the banjo neck; 3 the head hoop; 4 the resonator in back of the main hoop; 11 is the tightening hoop held in place by a plurality of tightening hooks 6; 7 indicates the thumb string; and 8 the tail piece which extends across the lower part of the hoop 11. The hoop head 10 is made of skins .according to the usual practice, held taut by the smaller tightening hoop 11, which, in turn, is drawn down onto the upper edge of the main hoop 3 by hooks 14 which have their lower portions 1S extending through the resonator 4 and their upper parts formed with a curve 16 which extends over the top edge of the main hoop 3 so as to Contact the upper edge of the smaller tightening hoop 11. To attach the main hoop 3 to the neck 2, I employ the structure shown particularly in FIGURE 3. Here the hoop is attached to the somewhat enlarged base 2a of the neck 2 by screws 18 and 13. This attachment is sufficient to hold the hoop 11 in place on the neck. The resonator 4 is then attached to the base of the neck by screws 2i) which extend up from the radially extending portion 21 ICE of the resonator through and into the enlarged portion 2a on the neck.

Since the head skin 10 held by hoop 11, must extend over the top edge of the inner hoop 3, allowance must be made for it to come down into the slot 22, which is between the enlarged portion 2a of the neck and the edge of the hoop 11. This is done by providing the arrangement shown in FIGURE 3 at 32 whereby the lower portion 32a of the nger board 2S is made removable. This is a block 32a and may include a fret. Normally this is held in place by compression of slot Z2. When strings 33 are loosened or disconnected from the tail piece 8, this extension block 32a may be removed by sliding it laterally. This structure makes it possible to remove block 32a, which may be considered the lower end portion of the nger board 25.

The tail piece 3 is shown in FIGURE 1 extending entirely across the lower portion of the head hoop 3. This is shaped somewhat like a segment of the circle of the hoop. The middle portion 37 extends downward forming a depending hook which engages the central lower portion of the hoop 11. This is the main anchor of the tail piece 8. Since a banjo depends for its sound upon the vibration of the strings as applied to the banjo head 10 whereon the strings rest on the bridge 40. In the structure above described, the vibrations of the head 10 are transmitted directly through the solid structure of the head ring .3 to the resonator 4. This resonator retransmits the vibrations to the head 10, which is drawn tight, similar to a drum head in a manner well known to the art. The inter-action between the vibrations in the head ring and resonator multiply the sound produced by the Vibration of the strings. ln this way an electric amplifier is unnecessary. It is also possible to reduce the diameter size of the head and resonator and still obtain adequate volume of sound.

After installation of the strings on the head and neck with the lower ends attached to the tail piece, the banjo is strung and tuned in the usual manner. The tail piece attached as herein described, tends to distribute the vibrations in the lower portions of the strings, below the bridge 40 in an ecient manner and no sound amplifier is necessary for this purpose.

I claim:

1. In a string banjo having a long neck and a circular head having a circular head ring; said neck having a thickened lower end portion attached to the edge of the circular head ring; said head having a skin cover an inner ring to hold the shape of said head and an outer ring to hold on the skins constituting and forming the head covering; a substantially circular flat resonator solidly attached to the lower thickened end of said neck and made integrally therewith and spaced from the bottom edge of the circular inner ring of said head by a plurality of annularly spaced screw hooks extending through said resonator at their lower ends and hooking over the top edge of said outer ring at their tops.

2. The device described in claim 1 wherein the tail piece securing the strings is shaped with three hooks to engage over the sides of the head ring; one of said hooks being centrally disposed and hooking over the bottom portion of said ring; right and left hooks engaging the sides of said ring above the bottom hook to form a segment shaped tail piece, said tail piece covering and protecting the lower portion of the skin of said head.

3. In the device described in claim 1, a linger board attached to said neck extending downward from the top to the bottom end of said neck; the bottom end of said linger board having a transverse notch to receive an extension block; together with a removable extension block slidably removable in the lower end of said neck and held in said notch between the lower end of the neck and the outer ring of said head; said block having at least one fret acting as an extension to said neck finger board.

4. In the device described in claim 1, a resonator cornposed of a flat disk having a circular body with a radial extension solidly attached to the enlarged lower end portion of said neck so as to be virtually a part thereof and said disk extending under said circular head in spaced relation therefrom to reect vibration from said strings.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Carlucci 84-269 Shutt 84-271 X Forchielle 84--271 Edwards 84-263 De Wick 84-270 Kremp 84-271 Lange 84-270 Blanchette 84-270 LEO SMILOW, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A STRING BANJO HAVING A LONG NECK AND A CIRCULAR HEAD HAVING A CIRCULAR HEAD RING; SAID NECK HAVING A THICKENED LOWER END PORTION ATTACHED TO THE EDGE TO THE CIRCULAR HEAD RING; SAID HEAD HAVING A SKIN COVER AN INNER RING TO HOLD THE SHAPE OF SAID HEAD AND AN OUTER RING TO HOLD ON THE SKINS CONSTITUTING AND FORMING THE HEAD COVERING; A SUBSTANTIALLY CIRCULAR FLAT RESONATOR SOLIDLY ATTACHED TO THE LOWER THICKENED END OF SAID NECK AND MADE INTEGRALLY THEREWITH AND SPACED FROM THE BOTTOM EDGE OF THE CIRCULAR INNER RING OF SAID HEAD BY A 